


Acting For Beginners

by orphan_account



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Do You See The Fluff?!, F/M, Fluff, Improvisational Acting, M/M, Pre-Sam/Bucky, Undercover Darcy, Well not totally undercover since the boys fall right into her lap, pre-Clintasha
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-06
Updated: 2017-03-10
Packaged: 2018-09-28 17:24:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10141517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Tony had a job for Darcy. Go undercover at the local college as the Introduction to Acting teacher and keep an eye on Peter Parker.Seems simple, right? Wrong.Suddenly, she's got Steve, Bucky, and Sam joining her class by accident and nothing is going her way. Also, having Steve in her class every day doesn't help the enormous crush that Darcy has on him. Nope, not at all.





	1. Zing, Zang, Zoom

**Author's Note:**

> a/n: I took a lot of acting classes in college and I love Whose Line Is It Anyway (the original version with Drew Carey). This idea popped into my head and wouldn’t go away. Time for some fluff. Enjoy!

Boy, did Tony owe her big time.

 _“Just a favor, Darcy,”_ he had asked her. _“Be over in six weeks.”_

She had stupidly said yes before asking what the favor was.

Keeping an eye on Peter Parker while teaching his Acting I class. First, what in the holy banana balls was Peter doing in an acting class? And second, why the heck was it her problem?

Well, her friend had given her the dumb puppy eyes and she had folded like a deck of cards. 

She needed new friends.

The class started at the bloody nine in the am. God Tony owed her.

With her large latte and her ‘lesson plan’, Darcy walked yawning into the small auditorium, seeing a group of ten or eleven students already milling about and settling into seats. She sits her bag down on podium and takes one large gulp of her coffee, belching loudly.

Peter’s in the back, she can see his light brown head already turned around and yammering at someone.

“Nice one there, teach.”

She chuckles, setting the coffee down. “Sorry about that. When I first came on, they told me this class was at one, not nine. Not a morning person.” Darcy reaches into her bag and pulls out the attendance book. “My name is Darcy. Ya’ll can call me Darcy. I’m not gonna do that bullshit syllabus thing, you’re gonna get that twelve times today and you’re all big kids. You know when to be here and what to do when you can’t.”

A couple of the students start to snicker. Darcy smiles, catching Peter’s eye. She wonders if he recognizes her.

“Say yo when I call your name. Allison Ark?”

_“Yo...”_

She goes down the list, just reaching the P’s when the side door of the auditorium suddenly swings open and two very large very burly men tumble through, followed by a third one laughing his ass off.

Darcy’s sure Peter’s gonna bolt as soon as he lays eyes on Captain America, the Falcon, and the Winter Soldier.

“Uhhhh...” Steve’s face flushes before twisting with confusion at the sight of her. “Hi?”

“Late arrivals!” Darcy offers. Sam laughs. “What are your names?”

“Um, Dar – I mean, ma’am this was –“

“As soon as you walk through that door, you’re my students.” Bucky’s own laugh turns into a gasp. “Have a seat. All of you.”

Peter’s eyes are as big as saucers as the three men walk up to the top row of seats and sit. Darcy fights a grin, turning back to lesson book. “So the first thing we are going to do today is get up out our seats and do some voice exercises. So everyone down here on the stage in a circle please.”

Now her class has risen to fourteen – fifteen plus her. The kids and the big dudes all shuffle down to the stage, milling about awkwardly for a few moments until they are in a circle. Steve is right next to her, his hands hanging slack at his sides. Darcy glances at the faces of her students, clapping her own hands together.

“Okay so this first thing we are going to be doing is what I call the ‘Kiddie Lesson’. It’s to measure how quickly we can react to things. Zing, Zang, Zoom.”

_“What?”_

Darcy chuckles. She points to the girl across from her in the circle, racking her brain for a name. “I’m sorry, hon, what’s your name?”

“Patricia.”

“So, I will do this,” she does a swinging motion with her hands, landing them in the direction of Patricia. “I will _zing_ you. Then you need to _zang_ someone else. That someone will _zoom_ another and it goes right back to the beginning. As the game goes on, it’s gets faster and faster and more and more confusing. Let’s see how long we can keep it up.”

Patricia looks absolutely terrified.

“Oh because I am a dunce, when you get zinged, you need to yell out your name. Okay? Here we go. Patricia, _zing.”_

Patricia _zangs_ Bucky, who stares around dumbly for a moment before Sam smacks him on the back of the head. “Oh! _Zoom.”_

The boy that caught it looks around desperately, shouting out, _“Logan!”_ before throwing it to Peter. _“Zing!”_

Peter’s eyes are still wide with alarm. _“_ Spider _\- Peter! Zang!”_ Darcy catches that one, popping it to Steve.

“ _Zoom, what the hell are you doing here?”_

Steve tosses the next one to a girl named Kesia. “ _Accident.”_

“I’ll bet.”

“ _Darcy –_ oh _zoom!”_

Steve doesn’t get a chance to finish his excuse, paying closer attention as the _zings_ and _zooms_ fly around the circle. A boy named Cole catches the last _zoom_ before taking a dramatic fall to the floor. The rest of the group applauds and he gets up to take a bow.

“Good job!” Darcy claps her hands together. “I will let you guys go now and see you all on Wednesday!”

The students break apart, gathering up their books while Darcy returns to her desk and pretends to shuffle papers until she and the soldiers are the last ones still there. Before she can open her mouth, Peter pops out from behind the connecting door.

“What are you guys doing here?!” he practically shrieks. “I don’t need four babysitters!”

“Easy kid,” Steve holds up a hand. “We’re not your babysitters, she is.”

Peter turns wild eyes on her. “And I thought you were cool, Darcy.”

Darcy chuckles. “It’s just to make sure you’re okay and you adjust well to college,” she explains. “And it’s only for a few weeks until your real teacher is back from maternity leave.”

“Maternity leave?”

“Yeah I must have left out that little detail,” Darcy waves him away. “Go to your next class. I’ll see you Wednesday.”

Peter does as he’s told, gathering up his bag and casting them one more bewildered stare at the four of them before he leaves. As soon as he’s gone and out of earshot, Darcy rounds on her soldiers. “Tell me what you three are doing here!”

Sam tries to turn a snicker into a cough, his smile fading instantly when he sees Darcy’s stink eye. “Uh, we were having a race. I lost.”

“As usual,” Bucky smirks. Sam smacks him again.

“And well...” Steve tries, glancing helplessly at his companions. “We beat him here and I leaned against the outside door –“

“You fell through it?” Darcy finishes, laughing. “Yeah that sounds like you.”

“Thanks,” Steve mumbles, the tips of his ears reddening.

Darcy scoffs, lightly tapping his elbow. “You guys don’t need to come back on Wednesday.”

Sam shrugs. “I don’t know, little bit. We might.” He turns to go, Bucky trailing after him. “Wait and see.”

“What? What does that mean?”

Steve chuckles, following after their friends. “He said, wait and see.”

“Wha – guys? Guys!”

**.**

**.**


	2. Freeze

**.**

“What are we gonna do today, Darcy?”

Darcy flashes a smile at the enthusiasm in Kesia’s voice, slapping her attendance book shut. “I think you all are going to like this one. On the stage please.”

She cannot freaking believe it. The three little shits came back and they brought Clint.

Darcy’s eyes are shooting daggers at Steve but he makes a point not to meet her gaze. Bucky’s smirking and whispering behind his hand to Sam like a twelve year old and she has the strange urge to kick him right in the shin.

“Circle?” Peter asks.

“Nope,” Darcy turns on her heel and points to Logan and Patricia. “So the game that we are going to do today is called ‘Freeze’. Everyone’s going to participate but I need two of you to start the game with me.” Patricia’s hand goes up and Logan’s too. “Great. Thanks guys. So what we are going to do is start a scene and every couple of minutes, someone is going to yell out ‘freeze’ and tap one of us out. After that, they will start a new scene.”

“Is this going to be off the top of our heads?” A boy named Michael asks.

Darcy nods. “Yep. I know that sounds scary so I will start. If you cannot think of anything or get scared, you can ask for a tap out and someone will step in, all right?”

Logan claps his hands together in agreement and Patricia pokes his shoulder with her elbow. Darcy holds out her hand for Patricia’s. “Oh Cleopatra, what about that snake there?” She looks directly at Logan who quickly gets to his stomach and attempts to snake crawl along the floor.

Patricia’s eyes light up and the game is off and running.

Within twenty minutes, Sam is sitting on the edge of the stage, with Kesia piggyback on his shoulders. “Down periscope!” He calls. Darcy isn’t sure where the scene went and she doesn’t really care.

“Freeze!” Bucky calls.

Uh oh.

Bucky walks over to Kesia and taps her out. Sam lets out a groan and everyone begins to laugh. He heaves himself up onto Sam’s back, almost giggling with glee as Sam groans at the weight. “Uh, I got nothing. I just wanted to climb on your back.”

Darcy nearly spits out her water, coughing and wiping her mouth.

“Yell freeze but don’t tap either of them out,” Clint whispers to her.

Darcy passes him the water bottle. “Freeze!” She holds up her hand when Bucky tries to slide off of Sam’s back. “Sam, I like your new backpack!”

Catching on, Sam rolls his eyes. “Yeah, I call it the Buck-Pack. I may have too much junk in there though.”

Clint barks out a laugh. Steve stands off to the side, holding an invisible notebook in his hand and pretending to write. “Day Five. The mating ritual of the chimpanzees continue...”

“I will seriously get you buttheads for this,” Sam grinds out. “Get off me, Barnes.”

No sooner do Bucky’s feet touch the floor that Darcy yells ‘freeze’ again before grabbing onto Clint’s arm and pulling him into the second row of seats. “Man, they don’t do Chippendales like they used too, do they?”

Sam snorts, pushing Bucky away. “Freeze!” Peter and Michael dash forward, tapping both of the men out.

Time gets away and the game is still in full bloom when students for the next class begin to mill in. “Shit,” Darcy mutters, poking Steve in the side. “Do the whistle thing, please.”

Steve waits until Peter is not balancing on Logan’s back anymore before doing as he’s told. “Sorry guys, we’re gonna have to pick this up on Friday.”

“ _Awwwww_.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll get back to this when we can,” Darcy tells her students. “Have a great day.”

“Excuse me.” Darcy turns around to see a girl with long straight black hair standing just a few inches away from her. “Are you still doing sign ups for this class?”

Grinning, Darcy nods.

-;

Steve’s waiting for her outside. “Hey! Darcy greets him as she walks past. They fall into step beside each other, Steve passing her a fresh coffee. “Dude, I love you.” She pretends she doesn’t see the pleased blush that spreads across his chin at her words. “What’s up?”

Steve shrugs a shoulder bashfully and Darcy has never found him more adorable. Not that she sits around thinking Captain America is adorable, no sir.

“Wanted to see you. That was fun today.”

“You barely participated!” Darcy reminds him with a smile. “It’s a good thing you’re not actually _taking_ this class.”

“Would I be failing, teach?” Steve asks her and Darcy ignores the warm fuzzy feeling in her stomach.

“Maybe,” she says. “Some extra credit might make up for it though.”

Oh god, that was the _worst_ flirting she has ever done. She needs to burn her copy of _The Graduate_ and pretend it never existed.

Steve smiles at her like her old golden retriever used too and Darcy pokes him in the arm. “See you later, Steve.”

“Bye Darcy.”

She goes one way and he goes the other, disappearing down the crosswalk that leads back into the city while Darcy heads to her office.

.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ha! So the game chapters will be about a thousand words long and the actual romantic chapters will definitely be longer. Which Avenger will show up to the next class? And don’t forget to drop me suggestions at my tumblr – best be on my tumblr @janefosters because I will lose them here in the reviews. Thanks! Don’t forget to leave reviews!


	3. Let's Make a Date

.

Darcy glares at the cards in her hands like they had personally wronged her. “Ugh these are so stupid.”

“What’s stupid?”

She glances at Clint and pulls the cards away before he can see them. “I hate these suggestions, I must have been drunk when I wrote these.”

Clint snickers, taking a noisy slurp from the Starbucks in his hand. “Whatever, teach.”

“Stop calling me that!”

He rolls his eyes, wandering back to his seat and kicking his feet up on the seat in front of him. Darcy sighs exasperatedly but feeling quite fond of the bird boy. He’s the only one here so far, having arrived about ten minutes head of the rest of her students. No sign of the ‘Three Amigos’ as she had nicknamed them in her head.

The students start milling in and Darcy realizes the group has grown significantly. “Shit, I need to look at my registration records,” she mumbles out loud, a little too loud because a few kids start to giggle. “Sorry. I’ll get a swear jar eventually.”

“Will you buy us ice cream with all the money you put in?” Michael asks.

“Whatever you want.”

Clint whistles loudly and Darcy’s head shoots up. To her surprise, she sees Steve, Sam, and Bucky all walk in together followed by ... “Thor?”

Peter, who had just walked in with a cup of coffee, promptly drops it. “That’s it, I’m out.”

“Get your butt back here, Parker!” Darcy calls. “Uh, talk amongst yourselves for a minute,” she says to the rest of the kids, quickly stomping over to Steve and grabbing him by the teeshirt. He gapes in surprise, the smile sliding from his lips when he sees the glare on Darcy’s face. “What the hell? Thor?”

“I just told him about the class and he wanted to come and see you, that’s all!”

“More and more Avengers keep showing up,” Darcy whisper-yells. “Is Natasha gonna be here on Monday? Tony? Kate?”

“Uh...”

“Steve!”

“No! I don’t know. Darcy, I’m not doing this on purpose. They love you and wanted to see how you were doing.”

“I call bullshit,” she mutters lowly. “And guess what?” Darcy pats his chest. “You get to play the girl in our next game.”

“What? Darcy!”

-;

Steve’s cheeks and forehead are flushed red and Darcy couldn’t be happier.

Bucky looks like he’s holding in the biggest belly laugh. Thor seems confused and Clint’s hitched on his ‘murder face’.

“So this new game, we will do two rounds of it – first with our ‘older students’ and then the rest of you can try this out. This is one we will be playing a few times because it really helps with the quick thinking. I know that doesn’t make sense so just nod along, okay?”

Peter rolls his eyes quite noticeably. Darcy passes the three envelopes to the boys. “So in those envelopes are characters that you have to act out and Steve here will be guessing your character after asking you a series of questions. This is my favorite game, I call it ‘Let’s Make a Date’.”

Clint groans loudly. “I get why you were glaring at these when I walked in here.”

“Shut up.”

Darcy plops herself down next to Peter. “What the heck?” he whispers.

“Just wait and see,” she murmurs.

Peter beams like the sun and Darcy smiles, leaning back in her seat and kicking her feet up.

“Shit, Darcy what am I supposed to do?” Steve asks.

“Act like one of those gals on those dating shows. Bachelor number one, if you were a kind of lipstick, what kind would you be? Bachelorette number two, if you were to take me to dinner –“

“Okay okay I get it.” Steve harrumphs and turns back to the other three. Sam finally lets out a belly laugh from behind her and Darcy halts the game before Steve can open his mouth.

“Thor, you’re out. Sam, you’re in.”

“What? Darcy, why?!”

“Because you’re not being quiet,” Darcy clicks her tongue and points to the stage. The rest of the kids _oooooh_ and Sam seems tempted to flip them off.

Thor nearly bounces from the stage, taking the seat that Sam vacates. He walks down the steps and takes the stool, picking up the envelope Thor had left behind. “Are you serious?” he gapes at Darcy.

Darcy makes a brushing motion with her hand and Sam groans. Bucky pokes his side with his glove covered hand and Sam bats him away.

“Bachelor number one...” Steve begins, his face still stained with scarlet. He asks a question that Darcy doesn’t hear, her eyes trained on Clint.

She barks out a laugh when Clint begins to flap his arms, getting up from his stool to run a circle around Steve and then sits in Bucky’s lap. The class roars with laughter and Clint’s own face flushes. He glares at Darcy and she can just make out the threat he mouths to her. Well she’ll be sleeping with one eye open tonight.

The rest of the game goes well. Clint sits on Bucky some more and Steve correctly guesses that he’s a female eagle, sitting on her egg – Bucky.

Bucky talks in a southern twang and for some reason Darcy finds that incredibly attractive. She has to pinch herself to remember that Bucky’s already got a main squeeze in Sam even though neither of them know it yet.

Sam’s suggestion is her favorite. The class giggles with glee as he begins to speak like a teenage girl and she remembers that the suggestion was that Steve was the father of a sixteen year old girl (Sam) who wouldn’t let his daughter go out for the night.

“You can’t tell me what to do!” He’s saying to Steve, who is trying his hardest not to lose his shit. Sam loops an arm through Bucky’s and Darcy almost falls off of the chair. “We’re in love and we’re gonna run away together!”

“Come here, sweetheart!” Bucky stands up and without even breaking a sweat, picks Sam up in a fireman carry over his shoulder.

Darcy starts to applaud and the rest of the kids mimic her. “We’re gonna stop that right there. Steve, you have any ideas what these other two are?”

“You can put me down now, Barnes.”

All eyes on Sam and Bucky. “Oh.” Blushing, Bucky sets Sam on his feet and then pulls his seat as far away from him as he can like he’s suddenly made of snakes or something.

“Uh...Bucky’s a southern farmer and Sam’s my teenage daughter?” Steve shakes his head fondly at his three friends.

Peter cackles, reaching out his fist to Darcy. “I cannot believe you got them to do that.”

Darcy returns the fist bump with her own grin.

“I’m gonna get you for this, Darcy!” Clint spits out and he’s off his seat and making a mad dash for her.

“Hold him off!” Darcy jumps up, leaping over the row of seats with grace she didn’t know she had and jogging down onto the stage. Clint easily catches her and wraps his arms around her waist, tickling her ribs. “I swear I will pee on you if you keep that up.”

Clint lets go of her like she’s on fire.

Still laughing, Darcy calls on four students and they take the guys’ places on the stage, starting their own game.

Thor passes her a water bottle when she joins him. “I see you are having a lot fun with this.”

“I’m having a blast, big guy,” she says, leaning back in her seat. “Thanks.”

“Of course.”

Thor watches her thoughtfully for too long. “Do I have something on my face?”

He shakes his head. Darcy still hated the fact that he had chopped off all of his hair in the last few weeks. The look was so unnatural on him and she was sure Jane wasn’t too pleased either. Nothing for her to grab onto when – god Darcy really needs to get laid. Before she can even say anything to whatever Thor had just said, Steve strolls by. It suddenly dawns on her how tight his shirt is and –

“What did you say?”

Thor chuckles, shaking his head again. “Nothing, lightening sister. Absolutely nothing.”

-;

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ya know, fluff and comedy is really not my forte so I had a freaking blast writing this. The beginnings of SamBucky! And Darcy’s goo goo eyes at Steve...oh dear? Nah. 
> 
> Reviews please!

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so here’s the deal. Each chapter is going to be an improv game that Darcy teaches her students and the Avengers wind up participating in. Anyone who is familiar with improv, do leave me a suggestion for future games on my tumblr janefosters. Expected pairings – Sheildshock, BuckySam, and Clintasha. I hope you all hang in there with me, this is gonna be a fun ride.


End file.
